26 when he asked the man to sel1 all his possessions and distribute thell1 to the poor, and then to follow hÏtl1, the 111an was very sorrowful," Mr. Kennedy said. ((And Jesus said that it was difficult for those with riches to enter the kingdom of God. 'It is easier for a camel to go throug h the eye of a needle, than for a rich 111an to enter the kingdoll1 of God.' Jesus could see that the 111an might have been just the right person for hÏtl1, but a total com- lnitment was required. The 111an was a hostage to his possessions. The 111an was unable to take the risk of giving up what he had in order to do SOll1e- thing new and exciting, whatever it might lead to." There was complete silence in the church, and a certain amount of ten- sion, along with wariness. ((Of course, to take a risk just to prove sOll1ething to yourself is very wrong,)) Mr. Kennedy continued. (( A rOOll1 I was held hostage in at the Embassy had a window, a balcony, and an awning. Like so many others, I was strongly affected by those World War II movies about the heroics of Americans in tight situations, and so I briefly considered trying to escape. It was a long run, however, from the residence to the COll1pound wall. I was pushing fifty, and I had never been 111uch of an athlete to begin with. Those twenty-year-old student guards could outrun me. Also, on the other side of the wall were the mobs. Then, I had been in the country only a few weeks and didn't know the city, so where would I go? I remember the deep feeling of relief when I was moved to another rOOll1, from which there was no way of escape." Mr. Kennedy smiled reassuringly, and the congregation responded with 111ild laughter and mutterings of empathy. Mr. Kennedy went on to say that shortly after his release he had been of- fered good jobs if he continued in the Foreign Service. He had talked things over with his wife? Louisa, who had been a founder and spokesll1an of the hostages' Family Liaison Action Group, and then, Mr. Kennedy said, he had decided to retire from the For- eign Service and to join the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, in New York, in two main capacities: as director of the Cathedral's Peace Institute and as co-chairman, together with Louisa, of the effort to raise thirty-five million dollars for the completion and endow- ment of the Cathedral, including the Peace Institute. ((I had to face the question that 111any of us face in life," Mr. Kennedy said as the congregation looked at hÏtl1 intently. ((It was 'Are you so locked in that you can't break away?' " ((I think it would not be out of order if we express our appreciation to Mr. Kennedy by clapping," the Reverend Mr. Rapp said when the serll10n was over. Everybody in the church clapped enth usiastically for a very long tÏtl1e. After the service, everybody lined up to shake hands with the guest speaker on the ,\\Tay out. As last in line, we re- treated with Mr. Kennedy to a shady spot under a nearby maple tree and asked hÏtl1 to tell us a bit 1110re about his plans. ((All right," Mr. Kennedy said. ((I feel such a sense of liberation now. I don't say this with arrogance. Because I've been very, very scared, a lot of other fears don't seell1 very hl1portant to 111e now. This was my chance to break away, to do sOll1ething different. It's a little scary to uproot the fall1ily Leaving Washington is a kind of wrench, too. Leaving 111Y home, my garden. We've rented two floors of a brownstone in the East Eighties, not far froll1 the East River, and we've got a garden there, too. I don't know whether I'd have had the courage to do it if it hadn't been for my pension and health-care plan, after twenty years in the Foreign Service. My friends said, 'He's lost his mind. His career was right back on the tracks. He's been offered good jobs, and he's going to work for a cathedral.' But I felt, This is the mOll1ent to do it. One of the clergy had suggested that I might study for holy orders, and I think I could have done it in two or three years. But Louisa said, 'You put on the round collar, and out I go!' I think Louisa suddenly had this picture of herself passing out cookies after church, which isn't exactly her style." Mr. Kennedy laughed softly. ((When the Presiding Bishop heard about it, he said, 'God is speaking through Louisa' He said I'd be 1110re useful to the Church as a layman." The fourteen-year-old boy who had carried the cross at the service passed , I · I \ , , '\ I' I \ 1 I \ I l / I I , I \ I , \ II ' \ \, I I' I , \, I ;' 'III I 'I I:) , \ " ; \,/ 1 1 '/' 1 1 '1 \ , [ I [ I 1\ " I I II \ \ \ I , \ I - I (\ q, II \ \ \ n n r " , i I 1/ \ I \', \ I It t' \ \ I n ' \ I I t)) II' II J I, \\ \\ I , r \ I , 'I' \ I I . I \' 8 ,\t) n I\ ' \ ', " n l 1\1 1\ . ,\ \ ----= I I/ I I I' ( I I f (III' , I 'I' , , I t \ I Il-r--::.. \ , I by and waved to Mr. Kennedy, who sll1iled and waved back. ((Well, what is the Peace Institute?" we asked. ((You're looking at it," Mr. Ken- nedy said. ((I happen to be very con- servative. 1'111 a Republican. It 111ay be prell1ature at this stage to pass judg- 111ent on what the Reagan Administra- tion is doing in foreign policy, but it seell1S to 111e that our government is not taking a sufficiently long view of things. What's happened in Iran since January is very Ïtl1portant-ll1uch more Ïtl1por- tant than what happened with the hos- tages. The Peace Institute will run semi- nars on relIgion and violence, on reli- gion and econoll1ic develoPll1ent, and on American foreign policy. We need more continuity. President Carter, as part of his human-rights policy, 111ade Chile our whipping boy, but President Reagan takes a very different view. There is very great bitterness in Iran about the United States. We not only intervened in 1953 to bring the Shah back-we boasted about it. We didn't consider how intervention would sOll1eday back- fire, and also whether we dell1and too 111uch of SOll1e countries. We encour- aged the Shah to purchase American war planes to help our balance of paYll1ents. And there was the Shah putting in a vast American telecom- 111unications systell1, because he wanted to be able to say you could have direct dialling froll1 Isfahan to Chicago. This misallocation of resources by the Shah, with which we were identified, took place at a tÏtl1e when 111any vil- lages did not have roads. All that backfired. The Peace Institute will study questions of that kind. I had this terrible shock of recognition when Vice-President Bush gave cOll1plete endorsell1ent to President Marcos of the Philippines. Our government says we're protecting our investments and insuring our bases. That's exactly what was said about Iran But what happens when Marcos falls? If we continue to support the Shahs and the Marcoses, what happens? The Peace Institute will study ways of our having a more flexible foreign policy. Why do we get into bed with dictators? Thomas Jefferson and John Adams dealt with dictators, but we didn't get entrapped by thell1. The Peace Insti- tute will study all these things." The morning sun was hot now, and It was growing warm under the maple tree. Mr. Kennedy loosened his neck- tie ever so slightly. ((We missed the